I Met Three Amazing Women in 24 Hours

I've learned a couple things this week. First, having five meetings in a day pretty much precludes you from getting anything else done. Second, I am privileged to know some incredible women. I wanted you to know just a little bit about these wonderful people whom I had the chance to spend time with in such a short period this week.

Friend and former Clovis Chamber member Tracy Barnes came in to rejoin with her business, Premier Bride. She and business partner Kristy Montgomery started with the magazine Premier Bride, added a bridal show, a second city version of the Premier Bride magazine, a third and original magazine called "His" and now they are opening the Premier Bridge Wedding Center. They have sold His Magazine to a local entrepreneur, but they still run all the other businesses with just two people.

In addition to this budding empire, Tracy has two children, one is just barely two. She is also very creative and has had to slow herself down with all the ideas that she's had for expanding their business. One thing at a time, Tracy! I don't know how Tracy and Kristy do all of this, but now that they are back in the Chamber, I'll be studying their techniques.

The next morning, I had a phone conversation with Lisa Marie Platske, who very graciously gave me her time even though we've only met in person once (although we've maintained contact via email). She gave me great advice, based on her personal experience, but she said one thing in particular that is going to stick with me:

It's not about starting big,
it's about just starting and having a big plan.

Isn't it obvious that someone who wrote a book called "Designing your Destiny" would think like this?

And finally, I met with Jill Hendrickson, who is also an author. We "met" on Twitter, then she attended the Prosperity Forum last week. Jill has traveled extensively and we both have a great passion for the food and culture of Japan, where she lived and worked for 10 years. She also spent a great deal of time traveling and living in Italy, which was the inspiration for her book "Lose Weight, Italian Style!" Jill has an extensive journalism background, so she felt very comfortable with the writing. Now, it's time for her to step out of her comfort zone and do the marketing and networking. Can it be "out of your comfort zone" if you seem to be so comfortable with it? It seems to me that Jill will be learning this new skill very quickly.

I've just started reading the book, but I really appreciate her perspective in just this little bit. It is definitely less a "diet" book and much more about a luxurious culinary lifestyle.


I hope all of you will take the time to learn more about the businesses of these incredible women. Perhaps you'll be fortunate and meet them some day.

What is a Networked Cold-Call? And How do We Handle It?

A “networked cold-call” is a promotional message, sales pitch or invitation that comes through networking channels.

It’s like getting a direct marketing piece in the mail except that a networked cold-call is much more awkward to deal with if you’re not interested. Got a direct mail pitch? Not interested in the product or service? Just toss the catalog, letter, or postcard in the mail and no one is the wiser.

Even a cold-call that comes over the phone seems to be easier to deal with. Either you’re interested or not, but no one has any kind of emotional investment in the conversation. You tell them “No, thank you” and then you end the call. Unless you are someone who takes telemarketing calls personally.

Photo courtesy of VLima.com from Flickr

And that’s what I think makes “networked cold-calling” so uncomfortable. It’s delivered personally, either face-to-face at a networking event or through messaging channels on the social media sites. And it’s probably someone you don’t really know, but they know someone you know or you’ve met them at a networking event and exchanged a few words. So now it feels personal in that there's no separation. If you're not interested, it feels like you are rejecting them. Most people don't like to do that in person.

What do you say? How do you respond? Do you respond when it comes through the social media channels? I’m no expert, I’ve certainly made a few blunders in this area, but here are a few thoughts on handling it:

• You can ignore sales pitches that come via DM in Twitter. It’s probably an autoresponder and there’s no one real on the other end. They are throwing tons of spaghetti to see what sticks.
  
  
• I’m experiencing less message selling on Facebook, except for event invitations that come through the groups I’ve joined. I signed up for the groups because I wanted to know what’s going on, but if you don’t like the messages, just drop out of the group. And if someone is a relentless promoter, you can hide all their messages.
  
  
• LinkedIn seems to be a challenge but I think you should take these messages seriously, especially if they are personalized. Respond as graciously as you can, but make sure you respect the salesperson’s time by making it clear that you are not interested.
  
  
• Face to face at a networking event. This is the hardest one of all. There is a range of techniques, from passive aggressive (agree the whole time but don’t do anything) to passive (just blank stare) to educational (invite them to participate in a Little Miracles PAK).

I’m interested in your thoughts, of course and I’ll have another post later this week going into more detail on handling face to face “networked cold calling.” (If you don’t want to miss the post, sign up for Google Reader and subscribe to my RSS feed.)

Why Do We Feel Compelled to Change the Name?

Has networking been so ruined, so misused, and so misapplied that we've got to change the name? Or is it just marketing? Why do experienced, well-known writers, bloggers and speakers need to find euphemisms for networking? It's called "connecting" or "networlding" or other names. Sometimes there is simply a refusal to call networking by its name.

I find it funny because selling and sales and salespeople also have a bad reputation, but I don't see the same tendency to try to rename or reframe the activity. Am I missing some metaphors for sales and selling? I'm curious if you can think of one ...